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Bob wrote a very interesting article in the March issue of the Hemmings Classic Car. The article is "America's Best V-8 Engine : Studebaker" . I am seeing frequent articles in this magazine. It seems not an issue goes by and there is at least one article about Studebaker or one of its subsidiaries (STP or Paxton). It's nice to have folks like Bob Palma spreading the "Good Word" and promoting the Studebaker hobby!! Thanks Bob and great article!

Comment

Thank you for the enthusiastic response to the March 2015 Hemmings Classic Car column about the Studebaker V8, both here and in the "In Hemmings Classic Car" topic, and what was posted in "Where's Bob Palma?" topic (here, incidentally). It's not hard to preach when you believe it in your heart, and what a pleasure it was to be able to do that column. As you probably know, I pretty much have carte blanche with few guidelines for topics in my column, so the Studebaker V8 writing was a complete surprise when submitted to editor Richard Lentinello December 8. He enthusiastically responded within an hour of receiving it, saying, "Great column; lots of new information. Thanks."

A couple housekeeping notes:

1. I want to thank cousin George Krem and close-to-my-Studebaker-heart friends Nelson Bove and Ted Harbit for reviewing the column and offering suggestions as I wrote and rewrote it. They were sworn to secrecy and thankfully kept their mouths shut so it would be a surprise. Thanks, guys; opinions and suggestions much appreciated.

2. SDC could get in trouble if we scanned and posted the article here while the March issue is still the current issue and available for sale on newsstands, so I ask that no one do that. As soon as the April issue of Hemmings Classic Car is received by subscribers (mid-February), the full March issue will be available for free viewing in the magazine's archives, so we can post scans at that time. But we should not do that ahead of time. One hazard of the internet is that we are used to getting everything "free" ....but if you stop to think about it, no one has endowed American City Business Journals with several billion dollars to keep Hemmings publications going in perpetuity, so non-subscribers should be able to buy single copies of this March issue on major newsstands and bookstores, probably beginning by the end of this week (January 23rd or so). Please do so if you do not subscribe.

3. Don't expect any follow-up Letters to the Editor about The Best American V8: Studebaker column to appear in the next issue, April; they probably won't. The publishing schedule is such that the next issue is well along before a given issue comes out. So, look for any brickbats or bouquets to appear in May or June. (Since June is my next column in rotation, they may save responses to the March column for June's issue. I simply don't know, but in any case would not expect any responses to appear before the May issue of Hemmings Classic Car.)

4. This is a good reason to subscribe to Hemmings Classic CarAFTER you have paid your SDC Dues to support this forum and receive Turning Wheels. There is nearly always something "Studebaker" in every issue of Hemmings Classic Car; for example, Dick Quinn is quoted in this issue within the nice write-up of the 1937 President coupe many have referenced. (Even the regular subscription price of $18.95 is roughly $1.50 per issue and barely a nickle a day, for Pete's sake.)

Well, "thanks again," 'glad you all enjoyed it.BP

We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

Comment

Jack Heidel is a regular Studebaker competitor at The Ohio Mile and will be featured in the March Turning Wheels. Jack is an avid Studebaker V8 man and was happy to see the March Hemmings Classic Car column on the Stude V8.

This e-mail from Jack just came in this morning. He said I could post it here; comments from a Chevy-oriented engine builder on The Studebaker V8:

Hi Guys,

'Thought you might like the opinion of a Chevy Engine Builder on the Studebaker V-8. My friend Wayne Smith is a noted (locally) engine builder, having done that full time at one period. His company, "Black Jack Racing Engines," has an excellent reputation. He has built engines for Daytona and raced the Dash Car Series there. Wayne is now the Auto Tech Teacher at the local vocational School, but still builds several race engines yearly. He was initially involved with my #3221 Avanti Race Car effort but dropped out of the project. He has done all my machine work on Studebaker engines except the race engine that Ted Harbit helped me with.

When I met Wayne, I was driving a 1983 Avanti. He had a nice 283 Chevy-powered '54 Stude Coupe. He then acquired a 60 or 61 Hawk 259 (sic) 4bbl automatic. He was very impressed with its power for its engine displacement. He asked me about Stude engines and I told him what I knew which was not much in those days. In 1991, I had disassembled a 1960 289 that came in my 54 coupe. I had cleaned and stored the parts for a later use. (That block is now in the Avanti race car). Meanwhile I had purchased a 63 GT Hawk for $500 that hadn't run in over 10 years. I decided to restore it and make a daily driver of it. I pulled the engine apart and took it all to Wayne's shop for the necessary machine work and mods we had discussed such as an R-1 cam and larger 1.76 " intake valves, Z-28 valve springs, bowl clean up, port matching, enlarging the oil drain back passages, etc.

Wayne started inspecting the engine and pointed out things to me that I, in those days, would have never seen or understood. He said, "Look at this combustion chamber; this engine has machined combustion chambers!" To which I replied, "OK; that's good right? What does that mean?" He informed me that all other engines have cast in combustion chambers. "To get nice machined chambers you have to buy aftermarket performance heads and I mean good, high-dollar heads, too," he said. (This was in 1992 I don't know about now.) He liked the valve angles too as opposed to the Chevy angles. "Look at these nice, long rods," he said. "Is that good, I asked?" He replied, "Smokey Yunick says to use the longest rod you can fit into an engine for torque."

He tapped the crankshaft and said, "listen to that ring"! That is a good forged crank, he said, pointing to the wide forging line running down the crank. Yes, I know and the rods are forged too, I said. He liked the squirt holes in the rods too for bathing the bottom of the piston and walls in oil. Then he picked up a forged rocker and noted the squirt hole. He said that it squirted oil on the valve springs and aided in their cooling. It impressed him that a street engine would have that. He liked that the engine's insides were painted with Glyptol (sp?). He said besides sealing the casting it could help with oil drain back. Corbin Walters at Jet City Studebaker had told me that the only other engine he knew of that had that paint was a Mercedes. The only thing Wayne didn't care for was the tapered pin system of locking the piston pin in place. In short, this Chevy fan was really impressed with what he saw in the Studebaker V-8.

So... a few months later I was at the shop of Black Jack Racing Engines and Wayne was building a high horse power small block Chevy for a circle track car. He had mixed up some concrete looking stuff and was pouring it in the block. "What the hell are you doing?" I ask. He said that unless you use a Bowtie block or some other aftermarket thicker casting block, that you need to stiffen the casting when making around 600 HP. I said, You wouldn't have to do that to a Studebaker block, would you? To which he replied, no, not necessary as strong as they are.

I saw a gear set on his bench ready to go into the engine and I inquired as to why. "Those are to eliminate the timing chain on this engine." Why I ask. "Well, it is for more accurate timing and a more stable valve train." Oh, OK; you wouldn't have to do that on a Studebaker, right?" Right, he says.

So off to the house I go only to return a couple of days later to check on the progress of a project he is doing for me. Now he has the heads on this super Chevy motor and is putting Shaft Rocker arms on it! "What are you doing that for, Wayne?" "It makes for a better, more stable valve train for high RPMs." "Yep, you wouldn't have to do that to a Stude Engine." To which I said, "Now don't tell me you are going to paint the innards of this thing red, too, are you." He laughed and said not it wasn't necessary.

Anyway, for what it's worth, that's the impression of a died-in-the-wool Chevy man. He was impressed with the Studebaker V-8. Jack

We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

Comment

The current HCC also has a great article on a '37 President coupe "barn find."

This is weird. I saw that article in HCC when I saw the copy at the booksellers. I was looking for Bob's article, scanned the table of contents and the magazine and could NOT find it! Was I looking at the wrong issue, or does it mean I can't see, or does it mean that HCC could do a better job with the table of contents? It is probably me. If I had seen the article I would have bought the magazine.

"Madness...is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups" - Nietzsche.

Comment

This is weird. I saw that article in HCC when I saw the copy at the booksellers. I was looking for Bob's article, scanned the table of contents and the magazine and could NOT find it! Was I looking at the wrong issue, or does it mean I can't see, or does it mean that HCC could do a better job with the table of contents? It is probably me. If I had seen the article I would have bought the magazine.

Scott, The Table of Contents has a separate category for Columnists. If you have the correct issue (March 2015, in this case) and look under Columnists, you'll see my name among them, and the page number on which the column is located. BP

We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.